Survivor tells of death ride
April 29, 2001 3:12 AM   Subscribe

 
> This compared with the legal limit for driving for a
> person under the age of 20 ...

You have different blood-alcohol limits for different ages in New Zealand? Teenagers can only be slightly drunk while driving, whereas adults ... ?
posted by pracowity at 4:10 AM on April 29, 2001


yep, it does kinda make sense - especially when the drinking age in nz was 20 (its now 18)

kids in nz can start driving at 16, so in theory the different limits mean that someone under the drinking age shouldn't drive after drinking *anything* - whereas someone of legal drinking age is allowed a couple of drinks
posted by sawks at 5:34 AM on April 29, 2001


The average adult is probably expected to be a bit more responsible than a teen. The law may feel that the average adult, having had at least two to four years of driving experience (from the limits mentioned), should either know when to ask someone for a ride or just walk home.

That's just my opinion.
posted by Cavatica at 5:39 AM on April 29, 2001


"Dunedin coroner Jim Conradson opted to make no comment or recommendations about her death. He believed any such move was unnecessary and would only add to the distress and grief of Ms North's family and friends.

Ms North's family said no one was to blame for the tragedy."

Americans could learn a lot from the tact of the coroner and from the family's refusal to blame someone else for their daughter's mistake. Far too often in America, the lefties prefer to blame someone else for a person's mistakes, failure to meet responsibilities or status in life.

It's refreshing to see that some form of common sense and logic still exists somewhere in the world.
posted by Spanktacular at 6:33 AM on April 29, 2001


"The lefties." We always have to put a left-right spin on things, don't we? As if no conservative has ever filed a lawsuit or avoided personal responsibility. Show me some proof that it's "the lefties" that do this.
posted by rodii at 7:23 AM on April 29, 2001


Rodii: Left is more socialist than right. Socialists tend to be about social responsibility for actions whereas right-wingers believe in personal responsibility. It's pretty blunt and vague, I wouldn't have mentioned it, and I think lefties are poopheads.
posted by holloway at 7:49 AM on April 29, 2001


Funny, all those corporations that file frivolous lawsuits, and receive subsidies from the government are lefist? How interesting.
posted by Doug at 8:16 AM on April 29, 2001


Holloway and Rodii: I honestly think Spanktacular meant 'people left behind' by 'lefties', and not 'people whose political stance is left of the middle'. I think that makes better sense.
posted by Hjorth at 9:05 AM on April 29, 2001


Holloway: OK, fair enough. But there's a big difference between believing as an ideology in social responsibility, and taking action as an individual. I think if you surveyed the Columbine parents, I bet you'd find whole spectrum of political opinions, and yet they're suing. There are probably "leftists" who wouldn't sue and "rightists" who would.

I could spin this the other way. The "leftist" says it's a tragedy, and something our society has to deal with collectively, and it would be wrong for me to personally profit from it." The "rightist" says "my sense of individual opportunity says that I should I should try to collect damages and at least make something good come from all this."

My point is that all of these--yours and mine--are caricatures, and there's not a lot of reason to believe either is accurate, except for "it's plausible." So unless there's really something backing it up, I'd say spinning a personal tragedy into Yet Another Political Dig seems kinda tacky.

Hjorth: (?)
posted by rodii at 9:22 AM on April 29, 2001


I'm with rodii. Regardless of your political affiliation, anger and resentment is the second stage of grief. That's where -- regardless of your political affiliation or any socialist leanings -- you often try to blame other people and things for what's happened. As anyone who has experienced it would know, political opinions and even common sense tend to go out the window in the face of extreme grief.
posted by frenetic at 10:04 AM on April 29, 2001


I'm just waiting for one of you to ask for a group hug...

Hjorth, you are seriously misguided.
posted by Spanktacular at 11:16 AM on April 29, 2001


Spanktacular, stop trolling.
posted by dhartung at 12:02 PM on April 29, 2001


Damn.
posted by Hjorth at 12:18 PM on April 29, 2001


Sorry to burst your buble, dhartung. I just don't like you. It's not trolling.
posted by Spanktacular at 3:22 PM on April 29, 2001


I'm a "lefty" and, while I totally disagree with Spanky here, I don't consider it "trolling". I do, however, think that personal comments are way out of bounds at MeFi. While I got kind of a chuckle out of it (god knows I've wanted to say "I just don't like you" to a few people around here), comments like that could bring this community down in a hurry. So, please, let's not go there.

Am I wrong?
posted by jpoulos at 4:39 PM on April 29, 2001


"no one to blame"? How about the two dummies who thought it was a good idea? I guess what she meant to say is that no third party is to blame. Harsh but true.

At least they're not suing.
posted by Witold at 6:19 PM on April 29, 2001


...the truly amazing thing about humanity is that you only need to give a roomful of people five seconds, and they'll show you how stupid & degraded the species is.

The Only Future is a Robot Future!
posted by aramaic at 6:36 PM on April 29, 2001


I must apologize. I did not mean to write what I did. It should have read as "I just don't think like you."

My apologies to all for the missed typo.
posted by Spanktacular at 7:38 PM on April 29, 2001


Am I wrong?

That kind of speculation belongs in MetaTalk. You might want to check it out too, Spanky.
posted by rcade at 8:49 PM on April 29, 2001


Spanky, you don't think like me? What, pray tell, do you know about me? Do you even know what my position on this subject is? Do you care? Or are you just going to go around your whole life making blanket assumptions about people and throwing generalizations around? That's fun, I'm sure, but it isn't very intellectually rigorous.
posted by dhartung at 10:53 PM on April 29, 2001


Lube me up boys! I'm in for some intellectual rigour.
posted by holloway at 4:26 AM on April 30, 2001


dhartung, considering your strenuous objection to my post, I came to the logical conclusion that you disagreed with me. Based upon that, I guessed that you and I don't think the same on this particular matter. Perhaps I guessed right, perhaps I guessed wrong. *shrug*

I can see now that you're only looking fight, and you're method of attacking me by accusing me of trolling, while you do the actual trolling is the most original trolling I've seen during my short time here thus far.

Bravo.
posted by Spanktacular at 10:25 AM on April 30, 2001


Who set the Dumb bit on this thread?
posted by rodii at 4:32 PM on April 30, 2001


Spanktacular, look up the meaning of straw man fallacy. Then explain how your first post in this thread is not a straw man argument.

So far as I can determine, there is not a shred of evidence that any "lefty" has espoused the position you assert; certainly not in this thread. Thus the entire basis of your position is fallacious.

If you want to find some "lefty" advocating blaming others, well, go ahead and argue against that. But making examples up where they don't exist? Silly.
posted by dhartung at 6:21 PM on April 30, 2001


Can someone please tell me what the heck a "wheelie cart" is?
posted by nyukid at 11:34 PM on May 5, 2001


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